Week 2 - Learning Theories

There are three main theories/perspective explaining the learning process of individual. Cognitivism theory believes that people were all born with curiosity and have an intrinsic motivation to know. Behaviorism argues that learning process is shaped by reinforcement and punishment. While socio-cultural states that learning process doesn’t just involving the individual learner, but also involving the use of tools drawn from the surroundings.

When I was children, the learning processes that took place mostly applied cognitivism theories. As a child with no prior experience of the world, I developed inner motivation to study about everything surrounding me. No one forced me to study about anything, yet I found that it was important to study our surroundings. There was only inner motivation at that time, but its presence was made greater by the need of to quickly make sense of the world.

However, as I was moving to formal education, most of the learning process that took place was under behaviorism and sociocultural theories. The sociocultural was a good theory in underlying the education process, as I understand that learning process will be made quite possible without the assistance of learning tools, such as mnemonic devices and language. However, there was a change in the motivation of my learning process. There was only slight of self-motivation to study. All the hard work for studying was brought by the motivation to get a good grade and high rankings, not by the motivation to actually understand about the topic itself. The learning process is now shaped by the reinforcement and punishment through good or bad grade.

However, as I was digging my learning experience in university, I found that I applied cognitivism theory again. One of the reasons that had brought back my self-motivation to study is the fact that I chose my major by myself. I know that I’ve been liking this subject the whole time and I just feel that I want to know more about the subject. I’m also quite free to choose any modules I want to read. No one forces me to study. I found the inner motivation back.

Well, I still have concerns over grades and how to maintain it. But now I enjoy the learning experience more, because I understand that achieving a good grade is not the one that have made me decided to study about this area.

The learning methods in university are also more variable. It’s not merely engaging yourself in reading, listening, and taking notes of what the teacher dictates you, but you got to engage yourself more in the learning process itself. Sometimes you need to reflect some theories on your own and present it through your own understanding and perspective. This way, the learner has become the centre of the learning process again, not the teacher. University incorporates all the three theories altogether into a compact learning process. And I found that this method is actually the most effective of all.

*Edit:
As part of Assignment 2, the followings are blogs I have read and commented on
http://natalie3204.blogspot.com/
http://wansong.wordpress.com/ (commented on)
http://eeelearning.wordpress.com/
http://justanotherlearningjournal.wordpress.com/
http://fa-elearning.blogspot.com/